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User blog:Starfleet Academy/Timetable
Hello everybody! This blog is going to cover what we've got cooking over the next few months, and beyond in certain cases. Firstly, I will be trying to get as much as possible done myself, but if I'm not here it's not me dodging the problem, it's the Australian summer stopping me from running my PC. This isn't just more jaw-jaw, this will be a dynamic list which I'll update with other peoples' ideas while crossing off stuff that's been completed. I believe I've got everything here that I've been collecting over the past few months, however if I've forgotten something I said would be here please remind me. :) The aim is to get as much of this fixed as possible before the three-year anniversary that is coming up soon. Now Picture attribution Underneath the caption of an image there is a thumbnail of the uploadeder's profile image and the text "Uploaded by USERNAME"; this is something that was introduced when Wikia created its own skin, Oasis, back in 2010. I have some issues with this, mainly for copyright reasons, therefore I think we should remove this feature. This can be done at the backend by Wikia Staff, thus it is unlikely we would be able to reactivate it. It serves no real purpose since the user who uploaded the image is displayed clearly on the file page and in the logs. It also clogs up the caption drawing peoples' eyes away from the content (and/or authors for licensed images). I have moved ahead with hiding this feature. Specifications Some of you may have noticed that there are still locomotive articles which have lost their specifications. This is not by design, I have simply not gotten around to fixing this yet. Happily, this gives me an opportunity to suggest that we incorporate the specifications into the articles better. Instead of making a simple list, might we not add a paragraph about the specifications leaving the to be a quick overview? I have fixed up most of the articles affected by this update, and they have a rough example of how you can add specifications now. I see no reason why lists under a "specifications" heading wouldn't be acceptable either, if you choose to do that. However, writing a paragraph for technical information allows you to explain certain aspects briefly. Copyright This will be an ongoing occurrence, however, there is still a backlog of images already here yet to be deleted. This requires attention and I will be focusing on these images until this problem is only located in . I am ≥95% certain there are no obviously copyrighted images left on this site anymore! Thanks to Jsteel7 and AltoonaRailfan who helped a lot with this. :) Other than anything I've missed, all offending images have been deleted. Let's keep it that way, please! Information fixes Again, this is an ongoing thing, which defines wikis, but some information on LW is still wildly inaccurate. This is an obvious one, but it should be mentioned. Unnecessary: When I wrote this I had some articles in mind, but it turns out these have already been fixed awhile ago. So another can go. Getting images Due to the copyright bother, we have lost some very good images. If there's time, I will attempt to contact some of the authors of certain images requesting the use of their images. Policies and guidelines At some point I'll try to get the rest of these written; some need to be less involved than others — at least to begin with. Soon Main page This needs to be rebuilt, and it will be. This should include new sections as well as a new design. Color suggestions welcome! Background image Due to Wikia's new fluid layout, I will be fixing the background very soon. It doesn't fit even my screen on full which shows you how well I made it in the first place. I have no idea what should go there; maybe a bridge or tracks or something? An alternate idea would be to match the Featured Railroad section of the main page. (Credit AltoonaRailfan.) I'm not opposed to this but it has some issues: a) Wikia has such a thing called the "Skin Takeover" which places ads where our background is, and b) backgrounds are really annoying to make. Category tree The categories have gone astray and need to be structured a little better... just a tad. The minutiae is bothering me as well as the naming. This is kinda a pet project of mine, so I'll be fiddling with this for years to come... ;) Templates There are some templates we don't have, or aren't that well built. Also very few of our templates are categorized, which makes it harder to use them. Comments vs. Forums I don't like the comments at the base of articles. This is not about stopping discussion, but rather keeping it about the article and its development. Getting comments like, "This is my favorite train," is nice but it isn't relevant. We should replace comments with the old talk pages, which require signatures, and activate the new forums. The are better than the old, and they allow notifications to each user; rather than the site-wide message you clicked to find your way here, they would let admins highlight discussions to appear in the Message Wall notifications drop-down for all to join in. The new forums add a module to the base of articles which would be for discussions about that subject rather than about the article itself. w:c:muppet: has a very similar set up. The Station will be deleted at any rate, and the name carried on to the forums as the general discussion place. (The latter is currently called Forum:Watercooler.) Next few weeks Promote By this stage we should have activated the feature. The blurb about LW should be thought out at some point. Regular updates To keep everybody in the loop, regular updates should be made for changes that go on in the background. I tried with the community messages a little while back, but that stopped happening for some reason. :P The near future Logo update As a very minor change, we could update the site logo. If we don't do it at this point, I should leave it until later. Suggestions/designs please! If I get around to it, I'll make an entry myself. The logo should have something unique about it — like it does currently — but something that makes better use of the 250x65px space. Spotlight We should get LW onto Spotlight at some point. Before, during or after the anniversary makes little difference; just getting it is a goal. Anniversary What should we do for the Wiki's birthday? As my record in this area is less than stellar, take my suggestions as a last resort. The foreseeable future News page When things are a bit more organized and we have more users to help out, we could invest time in a newspaper covering industry news and train-related events. My suggestion for the name of this paper would be Bradshaw's, and it would be located at "Locomotive Wiki:News". A section could be made for the main page if it was updated regularly enough. Alternatives: The Milepost, The Commuter, The Daily Pullman, The Weekly Goods, The Iron Horse, The Gap, and I'll stop indulging myself and leave any others to you guys. (Jsteel7: The Morning Express and Locomotive Weekly.) (AltoonaRailfan: The Turning Lathe and The Locomotive Works.) Addenda I hope to find a time which is convenient in other time zones for me to log onto . I won't be starting that until I'm sure I've got the right time. If we don't get all of this done before April, that doesn't matter. It helps in the long run too! Live long and prosper, Starfleet Academy (Messages) Category:Blog posts